[Rpm-metadata] Debian metadata (was Re: format misc)

[Panu Matilainen]

Quoting Jeff Licquia <licquia at progeny.com>:

> On Wed, 2003-10-08 at 15:45, Jeff Johnson wrote:

> > OTOH, if apt needs syntax to express Pre-Depends, then I'm all in favor
> of
> > permitting the XML syntax. Just please, please, please do not use for 
> > rpm purposes,
> > Requires: is more than sufficient, and you cannot possibly need to 
> > expose this legacy
> > artifact to any kinown rpm depsolver.
> 
> Debian needs Pre-Depends because dpkg batches unpack and configure
> stages of package installs; Pre-Depends forces dpkg to batch a package
> and its dependency in separate batches, so the dependency is fully
> installed before the other package install starts.
> 
> I'm not aware of apt-rpm needing PreReq-style functionality; its
> dependency tree should be correct as you describe.

Current apt-rpm does need it as it does package ordering on its own and then
goes on to call rpm with --noorder to avoid recalculation as an "optimization"
thingy and I suspect (haven't checked/tested) it doesn't treat Requires equal to
PreReq from ordering point of view as it is.

Of course one can just drop the --noorder bit (a configuration item anyway) and
forget about the issue, dunno why it's bothering to calculate the order in the
first place since rpm would do it anyway. 

-- 
    - Panu -